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This solitary dance will be my last. Each step shall seal my farewell to all the hopes I’ve harbored.
“I was never too keen on fate,” he says, “but I do believe in curses. I’m starting to suspect curses are a lot like fate. Curses, like destiny, are determined to come to fruition.
Within these walls, I’m content. But contentment isn’t the same as freedom.
“Your father is an alp, a type of mahrt that feeds off the energy of dreams, but your mother is a particularly powerful dream fae. She’s a succubus, capable of entering others’ dreams or pulling them into hers. While her magic is at work, her victims are powerless, paralyzed until she releases them.”
“I’m going to erase you, Mr. Blackwood,” she says, voice strained by the puckering of her lips, courtesy of her still-squished cheeks. “I’ll never dream of you again after that, and I hate that it makes me sad. Thank you for being my dance partner. Now that I get to dance with real fellows, I wonder if you’ll still be the handsomest man I’ve met.”
“It was a nice sound,” he says, back facing me. I blink a few times. “What was?” “Your laughter.” He glances at me over his shoulder. The light from the windows catches on his lenses and obscures his eyes. “I hope after all of this is done, you can do that more.”
“You don’t have to do anything to earn their love. You are enough exactly as you are.”
“I care because you deserve to be cared about, exactly as you are. You don’t have to earn that. You just have it. My care is yours.”
You deserve to be cared about. You, my enemy. You, my friend. You, the girl who haunted my dreams. You are worthy as you are in every form.”
You aren’t a tool for vengeance. You weren’t born to be used. You were born to live, same as the rest of us. You’re a baker, a villain, and a pain in the ass, and you deserve to be—” I almost say a word that rose so naturally to my lips, but I stop myself. Not because it isn’t true, but because…it’s frightening. Vast. Overwhelming. So I repeat the safer term we’ve already used, with another poke to the chest. “Cared for.”
“You’re safe, Briony.” “How do you know?” “Because,” he says, “I will never let you go.”
“I’ll never let you fall. You can let go, but I won’t.”
This is so different from anything we’ve done before, even in that one dream. Then, we refused to touch, only watched each other’s hands. But now he’s solid beneath me. Real. We know one another—the good parts and the bad, our pasts, our identities—and we still delight in the other’s touch.
“When I said you were perfect, I meant it. Whether we’re fighting or fucking, stones, you’re perfect. You’re everything. Exactly as you are. I love—” My heart leaps at that word. “I love everything about you,” he says, softly, slowly. “I love the way you argue. The way you laugh. I even love the way you hate me.” “I don’t hate you,” I whisper. “And I love that.”
I want to tell him that I love everything about him too. I don’t love that he hurt me, but I love that he admits to his wrongs. That he takes responsibility for them without making excuses, without trying to justify his darkest actions. I love that he cares about me. That he protects me. That he feels these things for me, even though we should be enemies.
It secretly states that I love her. That I’ve deeply and completely fallen for the girl that should be my nemesis. That even though I’ll never ask her to choose me, I’ll choose her. I’ll choose her over revenge, over the feud that threatens to break us, over the name I was born with, over the family I’m supposed to be loyal to. I’ll choose her. And I’ll do anything it takes—sacrifice everything, even my own heart—to ensure she gets the happiness she desires.
“I won’t let you tell me you love me,” he says, pressing his forehead to mine. His heart slams against my palm. “But let me say it once to you. I love you. I have ever since you were nothing but a dream. And I continued to love you when you were revealed to be my enemy. I loved you when you annoyed me. I loved you because you annoyed me. Briony, I love you with every inch of my soul, and I want you to keep that somewhere deep inside. I want your heart to remember that you were loved. That you deserve love still. But everything else, I want you to forget.”
